Book review: Criminal Justice and Neoliberalism
| Author | David Brown |
| Published date | 01 November 2011 |
| Date | 01 November 2011 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895811415347 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews
Emma Bell
Criminal Justice and Neoliberalism
Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2011; 272
pp.: 9780230251977, £55 (hbk)
Reviewed by: David Brown, University of New South Wales, Australia
DOI: 10.1177/1748895811415347
Neoliberalism is belatedly emerging as a criminological subject and this book will
assist that process. Contrary to the author’s early claim that ‘many commentators’ have
preferred to view the context of ‘increasing punitiveness in penal policy’ as ‘one of
neoliberalism rather than of late modernity’ (p. 2) neoliberalism has been neglected in
criminology, with the leading work over the last few decades focusing far more on ‘late
modernity’. Which makes this book even more timely.
It has been largely through the work of Loïc Wacquant (2009) that neoliberalism has
entered the criminological spotlight. Bell uses Wacquant’s work as a jumping off point,
but diverges from it in various ways, none the least in rejecting Wacquant’s central claim
that punitiveness is intrinsic to neoliberalism. Rather she sees the link between punitive-
ness and neoliberalism as ‘indirect’ (p. 7), the key being the ‘transformation of the
Capitalist state’ (p. 4). Bell argues that at least in the case of the UK, this transformation
has not followed Wacquant’s US based characterization of ‘the amputation of [the
State’s] economic arm, the retraction of its social bosom, and the massive expansion of
its penal fist’. For as Bell points out, there has been considerable state intervention in the
economic field and an increase rather than a retraction in social spending (p. 4). There is
agreement with Wacquant that penal policy has involved an attempt to ‘manage and
control certain “undesirable” populations’, but Bell argues that ‘this attempt has largely
been a failure’ (p. 6). Having marked a departure from some of the more reductive and
hyperbolic features of Waquant’s globalized and hegemonic ‘planetary vulgate’
approach, Bell is better placed to present a more nuanced, detailed and UK specific
account. The value of this book lies in the attention to detail in its treatment of the twists
and turns in British criminal justice, penal and welfare policy and practice, under ‘New
Labour’, with particular emphasis on the new forms of managerialism and the indi-
vidualizing and moralizing language in and through which these shifts were charted.
The focus is ‘actually existing neoliberalism’, to contrast with ‘neoliberal theory’ and to
‘avoid conferring too much coherence on the concept’ (p. 142). Similarly, the ‘punitive
Criminology & Criminal Justice
11(5) 535–542
© The Author(s) 2011
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